Friday, November 12, 2010

Dear Domino's, or How NOT to Fix a Situation.

Last night, we slacked off on our dinner.  I forgot to take already-prepared ziti out of the freezer to thaw and back so we opted for Domino's.  Normally, we'd order Papa John's, but Andrew wanted Domino's wings.  I called up our local Domino's (about 1 mile from our house,) and I proceeded to place an order with a very knowledgeable employee who made sure to get every detail down:

2 orders of mild wings - run through the oven twice to make sure they're well done
2 Ranch dressings
1 Bleu Cheese dressing
1 Medium pizza: extra cheese and pepperoni
1 2L Coca-Cola

Delivered.

The employee said, "hold on just a minute while I make sure to type out "run through twice" since that was important to you.

We get our order 40 minutes later, and, unfortunately, Andrew didn't check it at the door. 

Here is what we get instead....

2 orders of mild wings - run through once so they were mushy/slimey...NOT well done
1 Ranch dressing
3 Bleu Cheese dressings
1 Medium pizza: extra cheese and pepperoni
1 2L Coca-Cola

The first thing Andrew does is read the order on the side of the box....
Wings-mild - run through twice - well done
2 Ranch dressings
1 Bleu Cheese
.......the rest was correct as well

WTH?  Well the wings were awful.  The pizza - why, Domino's? why?

I sent a note to customer service.  I explained to them that my fiancé used to manage a Domino's several years ago, and we know full well that wings are to be run through twice, and the only reason they're run through once is to save time (nice, right? but it happens.) I told them the wings were mushy and slimy, and the new seasoning on the pizza is disgusting. 

Of course, the DM comes back and apologizes, tells me that my comments were forwarded to the store manager.  I am at work.  I do not answer my cell phone.  Domino's calls me - Sarah, the manager.

She starts a scripted apology, "I received notification that you had a bad experience with us a few days ago (last night?) and what I'd like to do is offer you two free two topping medium pizzas and an order of Cinnastix.  Just tell them that Sarah gave you the offer when you order. Thanks, and have a good day."

How the HELL does that remedy anything? Did it address our concerns over the wings? No.  Did it address our concern that the order was given correctly, entered correctly, printed correctly, and still was not followed? No.  Did we even order friggin' Cinnastix? No.  None of what she said appealed or satisfied us in any way of a legitimate apology.  It was a "free food" brush off, and that's just not going to work.

I e-mailed the DM back (who asked us to do so if we still had concerns.)  I told her that I work during the day and am unable to answer my cell phone.  I told her I thought the phone call was a cop-out response, ridiculous, scripted, and didn't even address our concerns.  It was a brush off of free food in hopes of shutting us up.  How does that make a customer happy? I ended with we do NOT want free food.  We just won't order from Domino's again (even to claim our "free food.")

I thought Domino's had this whole "listen to our customers" spiel going on after receiving some bad reviews and complaints.  It doesn't seem like they've changed in the least bit.

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